Village to seek bids for $5M in sewer plant work

The Fredonia Village Board is seeking bids for several major improvements to the wastewater treatment plant with a total price tag of more than $5 million.

The projects would likely require the village to increase its sewer rates by more than 70% over the next three years. The work would modernize several systems and fix failing processes.

“Nobody has done anything about this for years. Now we need to make a hard decision. Does it suck? Yes,” Trustee Tiffany Bartz said at a board meeting last week, when the board was presented with a list of projects and a timeline for when they must be completed.

The $1.8 million conversion of the plant’s biotower to a modern system was listed as the top priority that must be completed immediately. The $1.5 million project of building a new chemical phosphorous removal building and the $1.8 million project of adding a third clarifier were given a couple more years until necessary.

Trustee Kurt Meyle, who cast the sole vote against seeking bids, advocated for completing only the biotower project and one other now. Completing only those would require a total rate increase between 40% and 50%.

He said board members advocating for higher increases to complete more projects were trying to “stick it to the people.”

“We are at a stage where we need to look taxpayers in the face,” he said. “There are families struggling because of inflation, because of tax increases.

“I understand things need to be fixed, but we need to do it piecemeal.”

Public Works Director Eric Paulus directed Meyle to pictures of the wastewater plant.

“Look at all the holes and pieces that are missing. That is what we are walking on,” he said.

Department staff boarded up the entrance to the biotower with plywood two years ago to ensure no-one enters the building, which is falling apart, Paulus said.

Because of the distance to the nearest hydrant,  they have to drag the fire hose 500 feet to clean the treatment tanks, increasing the chances of frays and tears, Paulus said. He said he has reached out to nearby fire departments to line up hose donations in case it breaks.

Paulus said his crew completed a $170,000 fix of a failed clarifier last year. The project took three months and during that time, the clarifier was down.

It was a “band-aid” fix, he said.

“We did temporary fixes — but there is only so much you can temporarily fix before its not there anymore,” Paulus said. “The staff is doing the best we can to prevent a catastrophic failure.”

The board agreed to get bids for all the major projects at the plant, but Trustee Richard Abegglen said the decision doesn’t commit the village to completing any of the projects or raising rates.

The board did not seek bids for several small projects such as building a new garage at the plant, renovating its offices, repaving its entrance and exit road and adding a fire hydrant.

Those will instead be completed out of the utility’s budget surplus over the next few years.

Bartz said she doesn’t want to leave the issue of funding the improvements and fixes to a future board that will not have been involved in the projects’ planning process that began in October.

“I don’t feel right passing this to the next board. New people are coming,” she said.

Bartz said the board members are affected by rate increases like every other resident.

“I don’t have a bunch of expendable income to throw at the Department of Public Works whenever I want to. But I am a resident here and we need to do these improvements,” she said.

Trustee Jessica Franck and Bartz agreed that the board should have progressively raised rates over several years to build a surplus and mitigate the need for a sudden rate hike.

“We have not done our due diligence in raising rates over the last 22 years,” Franck said, adding that if the village keeps putting off the projects, the prices of materials and labor will keep rising.

“One thing is for sure: the projects will cost us more in five years,” she said.

Improvements to the wastewater treatment plant have loomed over the Fredonia Village Board for many years.

Bartz said she remembered when the board learned a well was covered with cardboard.

“Thank you previous boards,” she said.

If the board decides to finance the projects with a clean water fund loan, the state would write off 10% of the principal. However, the village would need to prove it can fund all of the utility’s expenses and the loan payments from sewer rate payments while generating a 10% profit.

That means the village could not incrementally raise rates over several years to fund loan payments. If all of the projects are funded, then sewer rates would raise by almost 20% a year for three years.

Even if the board pursues no projects, it will have to raise sewer rates 10% next year to balance its budget.